Vietnamese-Australian seeks to popularize Vietnamese noodle soup

November 6, 2006

Le Phu Cuong

A Vietnamese expatriate living in Australia plans to start a $400,000 campaign to popularize pho, Vietnam’s traditional noodle soup, in his adopted country in 2008.

Le Phu Cuong, a cultural program coordinator at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Center in Liverpool in New South Wales state, said the Pho Goes Global project would feature a 90-minute documentary and an exhibition on the subject and a book on pho written by famous Vietnamese chefs and writers.

His government-funded center was looking for finance for the project, he said.

In June Cuong organized an exhibition at the center titled I love Pho.

After many Australians mispronounced it as “I love fur”, deeming it too anti-animal, he taught them to do it right.

“They now understand that wherever there are Vietnamese, there is pho”, he said jokingly.

Through the humble dish Cuong also hopes to teach Vietnamese culture and history to the younger Vietnamese generations.